Chapter 46

Karp stuffed a piece of orange into his mouth while asking,

"Say, kid, what exactly is your background?"

"Me? I'm just an ordinary cultivator! On my way to stay at a friend's house, I happened to deal with a crew of pirates, so I came to claim the bounty!"

"Claim the bounty? You're a pirate, so why are you coming to the Navy to claim a bounty?"

"Who said I was a pirate?"

"Aren't you a pirate?"

"I'm not a pirate!"

"Then why didn't you say so just now?"

"You didn't ask!"

Karp paused,

momentarily left speechless!

Thinking it over carefully,

it did seem that way!

Since the information Sengoku had given earlier was that a pirate had breached the G-16 branch base,

and he had just arrived to see Li Xiao standing there admiring the spoils,

he had instinctively assumed Li Xiao was a pirate!

Thus, they subconsciously and prejudicially assumed Li Xiao's identity as a pirate!

Karp reacted,

pointing at the mountain of Belly and gold and silver treasures piled at the door,

and shouted at Li Xiao:

"So, all of this is the bounty you claimed?"

Li Xiao nodded and said,

"You could say that!"

Hearing this,

Karp burst into angry laughter,

slammed his fist onto the Golden Barrier,

and roared at Li Xiao:

"Do you take me for a fool!"

"This adds up to at least hundreds of millions of Belly! Which New World pirate did you kill to come here and claim the bounty?"

"Besides, which Navy branch would mix gold and silver jewelry into the Belly when paying bounties!"

"Moreover, which Navy branch would mix gold and silver jewels into a bounty paid in Berries!"

Li Xiao calmly took another orange from his pocket,

and while peeling it, said:

"Well, that's a long story!"

"A few tens of millions of Belly here belong to my bounty; as for the rest, it was a friendly sponsorship from the highest commander of this G-16 branch base—Colonel Arlong!"

"Several tens of millions of Berries here belong to my bounty; as for the rest, it is a friendly sponsorship from the highest commander of this G-16 branch base—Rat Shao!"

Karp paused,

and continued asking:

"Colonel Arlong? Where is he?"

"Oh... he's dead!"

"???"

Li Xiao pulled out a document from his body and threw it at Karp,

then immediately said:

"Originally, I indeed just wanted to claim a bounty and hand over this pirate crew to the Navy for imprisonment!"

"But after arriving here, I discovered that this Colonel Arlong had long embezzled public funds, colluded with pirates, and oppressed the common people!"

"Acting on the principle that anti-corruption relies on the masses, I just happened to chop him down!"

"Here, the records of his embezzlement and bribery are right here; in his office, there are even more detailed evidence of his crimes!"

"If you don't believe me, there are witnesses over there!"

"If you do not believe it, there are eyewitnesses over there!"

Li Xiao pointed to the Arlong Pirates, who were restless and trying to take the opportunity to escape.

Seeing Li Xiao and Karp's gazes turn toward them,

the entire Arlong Pirates crew froze instantly,

quickly stopped their retreating steps,

and forced out a smile,

Forced out a smile,